title

Titles are so key in the making of a novel. I have picked up books at the bookstore, read the back of it, and quickly put it back on the shelf once I read the title. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. I do it all the time. It saves me hours of sludging through the heavy pages of what NY Times called: "A thrilling ride" or what the Producer of the Matrix named: "Best read of the year!"

I don't care what the producer of the Matrix said about this mystery book if the title is: The Salvation Chronicles.

Titles are key. Much like first impressions, titles shape our presuppositions of what we assume about it before we actually know anything. Everything that we read from that point on is off the foundation of our first judgement from the cover of the book. If The Salvation Chronicles is regretfully placed there, then the whole read would be ruined with the mental image of a mid twenties writer who still has braces because he think they look cool with dark red bands, and with an old sweater vest which was bad the first time it was in style.

No.

If the book was only named: Salvation, then it would be readable.

I am facing that very problem with my book. Even though it is yet unfinished, I am running through titles. My co-author named it Breakthrough, so for the sake of ease and convenience, we've called it that when referencing the drafted novel.

Now that I think about it... are one word titles a thing of the past? Are they overused? Are they cliche? Are two or three word titles coming back?

Breakthrough.

It's good, and I don't cringe when I hear it; I just think we can come up with something better.

Anatomy of Destruction.

Do you like the title? If it gets published, and I get to finish the series, the following novels could be Anatomy of Chaos or Anatomy of... fill in the blank.

That is the title of a book worthy of getting picked off the shelf for the sole reason of a well thought out title.